


Shattered Bonds

by Megchad22



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: God broke it by accident, M/M, Reincarnation, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28785816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megchad22/pseuds/Megchad22
Summary: Sometimes even a god cannot fix what they have broke. And sometimes the only way to heal old hurts is to face the pain.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Shattered Bonds

**There was once a pair of beings, mortals in the fresh world that God created, who grew something that was new between them. This new thing was something the fledgling God had never seen, and curious she tried to get a closer look. She pulled the immortal threads of one of the beings closer in order to see this new thing. In doing so she shattered the very thing she wanted to see. Another new feeling came into being, one she had no name for but one day would be called regret.**

**She observed the mortal beings, now with this shattered thing between them. They cut themselves and each other, hemorrhaging into the immortal ether. Other mortals imitated the shattered unnamed thing between them creating yet another new thing.**

**This pale imitation of the thing she had broken would one day be called Love. The thing that she had broken would have no name at all.**

Da cursed the day the demons had stolen his mate. There had never been a warning as to what would become of them. One day Da had woken to a stranger wearing Ka’s face and voice. None of the others in the cave even seemed to realize anything was wrong. They had looked strangely at Da and the thing with Ka’s face when he tried to tell them of the demons. 

Even the Shaman had told him that demons were not trying to take over. 

The imposter tried to turn them against Da, tried to say Da was the false one. Many of their cave believed the demon. They had shied away from Da even as some believed the truth. Da’s mate was gone and that thing had taken Ka away. There was only emptiness where once his awareness of Ka lived.

After many days of trying to convince the rest of the cave, then days of Da begging the demon to bring his Ka, Da finally took action. He knew he would have to leave, to travel far and wide to find Ka. His last action with the cave that had been his home was to kill the demon with his own hands. The demon may have stolen Ka but it would not hurt any of Da’s clan. 

Da travelled far and wide, searching in every clan and cave he could find. He listened to legends and told all the people in the world of his mate Ka and the demon that stole him. None had heard of such a thing. None had even heard of mates living within each other like Ka and Da had. He had been told that the Gods may have been jealous, that their jealousy was why Ka was taken. 

With every step he took, the place inside where Ka used to be ached and tore. There were days where Da could not breathe for the ache, where he would curl up and cry for his mate. Then there were the nights where DA dreamed of killing the demon. Only in those dreams, the being under his fists was his Ka, not the imposter. Da laid that horror at the feet of the demons well. 

Da searched for the rest of his life for his mate. But Ka was nowhere to be found. 

  
  


**When both the being had shed their mortal form God tried to mend the shattered thing between them. In her failure she watched as the broken shards cut into each other and so she sent them back to the mortal realm, hoping that what once had grown would grow again. The bleeding edges of their immortal threads, their souls, caused the ether to scream the echoes of its pain. It reflected into the mortal realm as well as fear and hatred dripped poison that spread war, disease, and hunger throughout all the lands. As the broken thing called love led to addiction and pain.**

**Something terrible was missing from this world. Something that had been taken when the nameless thing had been broken.**

Alexius stood above the slave pens, searching for something. His litter was not far away, but even the act of standing was straining his thin limbs. A lifetime of illness had robbed his strength but it felt imperative that he be at the market today.

There was a commotion further into the pens. A slave, likely freshly captured, fought against several of the market's guards. The blonde curl of his hair shining like gold in the open air. 

It was amazing to watch. The slave managed to kill one of the guards and was fighting 3 more before he was taken down. Even as he was chained in place he growed like a feral thing, shouting in his guttural heathen language. 

Such ferocity nearly glowed in the usual dismal market. Alexius knew why he was here today. This slave was meant to be his.

Breaking him would be glorious. 

Alexius turned to his attendant, “I want that one” he gestured at bound heathen. 

The attendant knew much better than to argue, and just went to the master of the market to arrange for buying the heathen. 

It would take Alexius four years to break the Heathen, who would be known by no other name. They spoke not a word of each other’s languages but it always seemed as though Heathen understood the orders just the same, often doing the exact opposite of what Alexius told him to do. The moment that Heathen’s shoulder bowed in final defeat, accepting the chains that bound him, a strange feeling pulsed through Alexius. It almost felt like regret. 

The feeling would grow for the next year, causing Alexius to feel discomfort every time that Heathen smoothly obeyed. At last he could stand it no more. He called Heathen to him and unbound the chains. Then as his last act Alexius freed him by slitting his throat. Soaked in the blood of Heathen, Alexius chose to take his own life. 

**The beings no matter their form, continue to bleed into the immortal ether of the planet. Nothing that God tried could fix the injuries that they have done to each other or the shattered thing that still bound them. There was no way for God to deconstruct the beings, they had become too intrinsic to the world she had created. Nor could she leave them to scream in immortality, the infection that is their pain spread all the faster. God attempted to let them heal by sending one back into mortality near the end of the mortal life of the other.**

Xochi, high priest of Cholula, peered down at the child. It was a tiny thing, smaller than any of the others that had passed through during Xochi’s long life. Their eyes, the bright green orbs that marked them as favored by the gods, were intelligent. Though their tunic covered them, Xochi knew that underneath was the mark of the double spirit. A child born as both male and female. 

They would make a perfect messenger. 

Normally Xochi would have seen the child for many more months, not until the ceremony to send them to the gods. However the parents refused to keep the child. Ill luck had left the family fearing the child was marked not as favor but disfavor from the gods. They were not all together wrong, attention by the gods could mean good or ill for a family. The child was just barely old enough to speak, the minimum requirement to become a messenger to the gods. 

The child stared back, a wide smile upon its face. 

For two years Xochi cared for the child, whom he called Ataw. The name given to the child before belonged to the family that left them at the temple. It is up to the family if the messenger to the gods is allowed to keep that name. Ataw’s former family refused to allow the child to bear the name. Xochi found the child was bright, curious and forever questioning. They also wanted to help others so much. 

Had they not been such a perfect sacrifice the child would have grown to go into healing. They would have done well offering healing and kindness to the sick, the dieing, and the hurting. But this was not their destiny. 

Xochi had never before cursed the gods for another’s destiny. 

The day of the ceremony Ataw still smiled up a Xochi. His eyes still glowed like precious stones. The High priest felt his old stomach clench. Never before had he considered breaking the ceremony. The child's pain during the ceremony is critical to ensuring the messenger reaches the gods. 

But causing his little Ataw pain seems so horrific. 

At last Xochi knelt before Ataw. He could not stop the ceremony that would elevate Ataw to the God’s realm. He could not stop the fact that he would have to use his tools at the altar to tear the mortal body of the child apart. But he could stop the pain. 

He would stop the pain. 

In the moments before they would be separated for the last time before the ceremony, Xochi handed Ataw a powerful drink. It would numb the child's flesh to what was about to happen. He encouraged Ataw to drink the whole thing. With the luck of the gods the child would remain mobile long enough to get them onto the altar. 

After the ceremony Xochi would confess to his transgression and face the consequences. He had lived a long life and seen the sun rise quite enough. His life would be an acceptable payment for his little Ataw to be sent to the gods pain free. 

**This time God tried separating two souls entirely, holding one to send back into the mortal realm after the other had left it. To her utter astonishment, somehow, the being sent later still managed to find the other. Reality twisted and nested inside itself, leaving the later being to travel backward to meet the earlier, then again even earlier. They still cut into each other, causing calamity and pain to each other without meaning to. God could see the overlapping realities, where the earlier being left the mortal world just before the later being entered it even as they left the mortal world far earlier, after meeting the later being. The later being even managed to make its way into God’s realm, meeting God for the first time.**

**Something crested in the immortal ether, the pain of countless years finally reaching its peak. Destruction echoed across the mortal realm, annihilating anything in its path. The two beings finally broke into pieces under the strain and destabilized all that God had wanted to protect. Then it reversed then twisted, back and forth, sometimes stable, sometimes destruction.**

**When God met the later being all she could say was, ‘You just rub me the wrong way.’ For how could she explain all the things that her one reckless moment caused. All that she had broken.**

**Then things changed again. And in this she had to enter the mortal realm. Perhaps she would be able to explain. Perhaps she could create the words to ask for forgiveness.**

“I didn’t mean to.”

The soft, ethereal voice that echoed caused Five to jerk upright from where he was sitting with the comatose body of his brother. It had taken six months to return to the right timeline after leaving the 60’s. They had lucked out in that the Sparrow Academy was largely disinterested in having anything to do with them. One less set of people trying to kill them. During their time in the Sparrow timeline, as they all tended to call it, they managed to bond somewhat as a family. Everyone had been shocked at how committed Klaus was to sobriety. 

As soon as they had returned to the correct timeline, just before Vanya would have destroyed the academy, Klaus had turned to Five and asked if they were safe. As soon as Five had nodded, Klaus had smiled and collapsed. At first they had been worried that he had slipped and taken something or was hiding an injury. Neither was the case. There was no medical reason for his coma, only that he was in one. 

That had been 18 months ago. For the first three months that had all camped in the infirmary, not willing to miss losing another sibling. Then, in a slow trickle, they had dwindled. Now they each to a day long shift to make sure Klaus was never alone, and life had moved on. 

Five felt every hair on his body raise as he looked at the little greyscale girl who had spoken. He had encountered many people with his time at the Temps Commission, none had ever given off the sense of barely restrained ‘Other’ that this girl did. She stared mournfully at Klaus. 

After several long moments Five found his voice, “What did you do?”

Her eyes snapped to Five. Five began to feel strange, like something within him was unraveling at the edges. The feeling ebbed when she looked away just as quickly. 

“I did not mean to break it.” She said instead of answering. “I just wanted to look closer.”

Five shook his head to rid himself of lingering strange feelings, “What did you break? maybe we can fix it.” He asked carefully, trying to figure out how to get this being away from his defenseless little brother. 

The girl shook her head sharply, “I’ve been trying to fix it. Every time makes it worse. I don’t know if anything can prevent what’s to come.”

Five look at her sharply, the word choice sticking out in his mind. “What do you mean?”

Her eyes remained fixed on Klaus. “They are tied too close to the immortal ether and the firmament of this world. When I broke them all those centuries ago, I caused the destruction to come.”

Five shook his head, denial stiffening his limbs “We stopped it. We stopped the apocalypse.”

The little girl never looked away from Klaus, but Five felt the weight of her attention for just a moment. “This world will be destroyed when they finally shatter beyond repair, and it will not be long. I do not wish to start new, but perhap there will be peace then.”

**_Klaus felt no fear when the world around him went black. Somehow he knew there was something he needed to find. He started to walk, and walk, and walk. Time had no meaning but it felt like he had travelled the world over with how far he walked. At last there was a faint change in the darkness. Klaus followed the change until he saw his destination._ **

**_Dave was there, walking towards him. As the soldier grew clearer Klaus realized there was something horrifying in the image. Shards of obsidian pierced him. Some of the shards were small, some were so large they stuck through his torso. Each was visibly razor sharp._ **

**_Klaus rushed forward. He could tell the exact moment Dave saw him, the love in his eyes being injected with horror. Klaus looked down at himself and saw shards of obsidian in his arms and hands. Ignoring the shards in his body, he reached toward his love. Only to jerk back when Dave hissed in pain, the shards in Klaus’s hands caused cuts to appear on Dave’s arms._ **

**_Klaus wrenched himself backward, almost over balancing. Dave automatically reached to steady him, the obsidian shards in his hands piercing deeply into Klaus’s skin. As soon as Klaus was standing upright, Dave pulled his hands away, looking pained._ **

**_Klaus tried to pull the shards from his hands, but he couldn’t get a grip. Then Dave gently, both wincing at the action. He pulled one of the shards from Klaus’s hand. In dim light an image is reflected in the shard. Instinctively Klaus knew that the image was of him and Dave, though the people reflected did not look like either of them._ **

**_It was a moment of hurt that a version of Dave had caused him._ **

**_It took hours before the small shards had been removed, now littering the ground around them. It became obvious quickly that Dave could remove Klaus’s shard and Klaus could remove Dave’s. With each shard gone they felt something heal._ **

**_Finally it was time to start on the larger shards. Klaus pulled a large shard from Dave’s shoulder, his hands slicing against the obsidian. The image showed Dave bleeding out on the battlefield. The wound in his front was so much worse than his back. A shot from behind. Klaus understood in that moment that Dave died so Klaus would go back to the present._ **

**_Dave pulled the shard from Klaus’s stomach. A version of Dave, standing with a bone knife raised high. There was something aching in the image._ **

**_The shard was laid on the ground, carefully. It joined the shard from Dave’s shoulder._ **

**_Klaus braced himself and pulled the largest shard from the center of Dave’s back. He had to use both hands, which were torn to ribbons near instantly. The image was of a sickly form that Klaus knew to be him. There was a knife frozen in a wide arch in one hand, a heavy metal collar in the other. Blood splatter through the air. It was freedom and betrayal in one image._ **

**_Then he turned his back to allow Dave to pull his final shard. The one that bisected his spine, just under his rib cage. The image was the most horrifying of all. Klaus, or who Klaus had been, on the ground and battered. Dave’s heavy fist coming coated in blood as it was raised, poised to strike again._ **

**_With the last shard on the floor Dave wrapped himself around Klaus, sobbing outright. Klaus was not much better, trying to burrow into his lover’s embrace. At their feet the obsidian began to glow, the shards reforming into something sold._ **

**_As the obsidian reformed they could feel old hurts began to heal. The horror of causing injury or death to their loved one and knowing that it was largely through no fault of their own. The betrayal of sacrifice mitigated by one last act of compassion. The injustice of owning another person, the knowledge that lead to an act of murder to grant freedom._ **

**_At last they heal the oldest hurt between them. The first break, not the betrayal of murder. Instead it was the loss of their connection that began._ **

**_Around them, the obsidian bond between them glowed further, changing until it was no longer brittle stone. Instead it was diamond hard and as flexible as silk. Nothing would tear them apart again._ **

**_Unknown to them but in fixing themselves, they have healed the world._ **

**Author's Note:**

> Just for clarification here are the incarnations of Dave and Klaus.
> 
> Klaus: Ka, Alexius, Ataw  
> Dave: Da, Heathen, Xiochi


End file.
